Coming To America...

Greetings my friends from the Windy City - that today saw a 20 degree drop in temps over yesterday's highs - winter is all but here!

Like Kelly, I have what could amount to pages and pages of life updates to share with y'all (especially since I haven't seen some of you in way more months than I would like to admit by counting) but we'll get there little by little. For now...a taste of how I came to be in Chicago.

I got back to the States in the wee hours of August 11th after, what for now, I'll just say was a ridiculously amazing year in South Africa that was closely followed by three weeks of backpacking through Zambia and Malawi with some friends. I chilled at home for a few days just trying to catch up on everything - sleep, time with family, meals that included multiple food groups, etc. I was then begged back to Edison State College to work a bit on the 16th and 17th - those were really hard days for me. They stuck me at the Advising counter the week before classes started which meant TONS of people and TONS of people who thought they were the most important people on the planet. Talk about culture shock. I was much happier when they told me I could go make copies or work in the smaller advising center that was just helping students to register for their classes. Y'all know me - I usually thrive under pressure and with lots of things coming at me from multiple directions but that front desk was not my cup of tea and other than airports it was the largest number of people I had been around since I had been back.

One of the girls who was part of my volunteer crew (she was in Johannesburg for her placement) was in Orlando for a large assembly for the Lutheran church that finished up on the 19th. She had known long before we left for SA that she was going to be there, so for an entire year we had been planning to meet up and go play at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - since neither of us had ever been. I went up on the 18th and hung out with Stacy and James and then met Amanda at the Marriott World Center - talk about a massive hotel - more culture shock. We stayed with the Efstathious and got to play at IOA which was just as awesome as I remember. Then I dropped Amanda at the airport on Monday and headed to Cocoa Beach to visit with Caroline for a couple of days.

At this point, I should back track a bit to a random day in Nkhata Bay, Malawi when I stopeed into an internet cafe and had an email from a friend and former colleague of mine from my internship days at the ELCA in Chicago. She had just been hired for a new position and was told to hire someone as an assistant to the Constituent Engagement side of World Hunger. She was soliciting my stuff and I was still in Africa. So I shot my mom a message real quick (the internet connections were terrible) so she could look at the position and potentially submit a resume on my behalf. From there I had no idea what had happened as we were without internet fro the rest of our travels. I found out when I got home that mom had indeed submitted a resume but then we heard nothing so I just went about my merry way trekking across the Sunshine State. I got a phone call when I was at Stacy's that first night to make an appointment for a phone interview on Monday. Monday I was at Caroline's and we were catching up when the call came and I took myself out next to her pool and tried to stay focused on answering questions while the dolphins were playing in the canal out back. Pretty much what Mikka and Dan said was that the position I had "applied" for had been given to someone else. BUT they had a 6 month contract position that they wanted to give me. They weren't talking to anyone else, but they needed me ASAP and pretty much needed an answer by the next day. I said "thanks", hung up, called my mom, talked to Caroline about it, prayed a lot as we sat on the beach, and eventually called them on Tuesday to say "why the heck not, but I can't be there before Labor Day." I was now employed with a salary and full benefits - wow, Big Girl time!

Since everything was on crunch time, I went on up to Gainesville (Stew was pretty much the only person who knew I was coming) from Cocoa Beach and dropped in on a pre-Rush event, and saw some old faces for a few days then headed home to finish unpacking and start repacking and trying to find a place to live. When I was an intern, I was fortunate enough to be able to find a host family to take me in for the summer - for FREE! During my prep time this go 'round, I sent them an email just to say we should ahve dinner, etc. Cindy, bless her soul, responded and said they had converted part of their basement and I was welcome to it for as long as I wanted - and the only cost was to help with the heating bill. :) HOORAY! I said goodbye to my family, AGAIN, and drove up to Chicago over Labor Day weekend. My travels allowed me to have birthday lunch with Melissa and APrats and Stephen in Gville, stay with my sister & family for a night in Atlanta, hang out with Ellie and Joel and watch my first Gator game in forever in Memphis, and crash at Kelly's awesome apartment for an evening in St. Louis before finally arriving to Chi-town on Labor Day Monday. On Tuesday, September 6th, less than a month after coming to America...I was at work.

Speaking of work...I should probably get back to it. More on that and Africa things later. Love you all more than you know!

P.S. I'll try to liven it up with pictures in the future but those would be at home and not in my cubicle...:(